Spring Forward and Leap

Sometimes during my fitness walks and bicycle rides, my mind tends to wander. It is often the source for some of my writing ideas. This morning's stroll was no exception.

I've recently become aware that this is a leap year. This deep insight comes from the fact that my electronic devices are telling me tomorrow is February 29th, a day that doesn't actually exist. It is an artificial contrivance that allows us to periodically adjust our flawed time keeping systems that don't really align with celestial movements. Our year is not really 365 days long, just as our day isn't really 24 hours, et cetera.

I'm doing this silly fitness challenge, The Iwo Jima 75, to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Marine assault on that island. Having just realized we have an "extra day" this year, I also brilliantly deducted that 1945 was not a leap year and did not have a Feb 29. The campaign took 36 days, our challenge is 37 days.

And then, in a serendipitous concordance, my iTunes shuffle presented Chicago's Does Anybody Really Know What Time It is. Talk about freak out, whoa moment.  Dude.

The wrap up of this mental train-going-off-the-tracks sequence was the reminder that in 8 days we will again manipulate our clocks to make the sunrise and sunset somehow more convenient. I cringe at the thought of people once again saying "we are losing an hour of sleep." 

No. You are not losing anything. We don't magically make 60 minutes disappear.

And, oh by the way, viruses don't care about your silly task force and who is running it. Sleep on that.